Painting of a Memory
by Axilliflorum
Summary: My happy ending for Chihiro and Haku. I love them, and ship them so much it hurts. One-shot. I'm not ready to write a multi-chapter fic just yet.


A/N: I just watched Spirited Away for the first time in my life. I have no childhood. But yeah it really touched me and I don't know why I wrote this. For fun? But I decided that the movie needs a happy ending. I don't know if this is happy though. It's alright if you don't like this, but don't flame :D Give critical reviews, but no flames and no vulgarities and no racism and no display of xenophobia please.

P.S. Nothing belongs to me. Nothing. NOTHING. I'm going to review on my pitiful existence now.

* * *

**_Painting of a Memory_**

_ "Will we meet again sometime?" _

_ "Yes."_

_ "Promise?"_

_ "Promise." Sea green eyes held her gaze unwaveringly. "Now go, and don't look back."_

Blackness engulfed her, and she gasped as she awoke. Looking at the clock, she groaned. It was four in the morning. She always had the same dream. Those words, said so tenderly, yet full of sadness and longing. Who was that enigmatic person? Why did the same dream plague her for the past nine years without fail?

As usual, Chihiro Ogino went to prepare for the long day ahead. She knew that it was impossible for her to go back to sleep after the dream. It pissed her off yet puzzled her at the same time. There was something so familiar about those eyes, and a yearning desire overwhelmed her whenever she thought of her dream, that mysterious dream.

Another day of boring school life. Chihiro wanted to accept the University offer from the best arts school in Japan, but her parents refused to listen to her and allow her to make her own decision, as usual. They told her that an artist had to scrounge for food everyday, and gave her a "choice" to study law instead.

Chihiro studied hard, of course; she did not want to fail, but as a silent rebellion against her parents, she spent all of her free time painting. Many people complimented her on her artistry. Too bad it went to waste. After brushing her teeth, she set up her easel, took out her paintbrushes and paint, all bought using her pocket money, since her parents did not support her painting. She let her mind take over her body, something she had not done in a while, and painted freely. By seven, it was time to pack up and go to the University, and she had completed the painting.

The picture was a work of art. Two disembodied eyes with an endless depth stared back at Chihiro. The background was exquisitely detailed. A red bridge across a sparkling blue river. A majestic, traditional bath house on the other side of the bridge. Frogs and toads the size of humans, a humanoid spider, a baby as tall as the rest of those mingling around the bath house, two identical old women with oversized heads, a living radish and a ghostly figure wearing a Japanese mask along with many others.

Like her dream, the scene she painted rang a bell. But the more she tried to grasp hold of the wisp of the memory, the more it eluded her. Finally, she gave up, frustrated and disappointed. She was on the way to University when a voice, no more than a whisper, resounded clearly in her head.

_"Chihiro, I'm coming for you. Sen, wait for me..."_

Chihiro started and turned around in surprise, but nobody was there, other than the few passerby who stared at her like she was mad. Immediately, she turned back and lowered her head. That voice... it was the one she heard in her dream! How... was she hallucinating? Was she going crazy because of the lack of sleep? She shook her head and decided to ponder about what just occurred after school.

After school, she went back home and closed the door upon reaching her bedroom. She stared at the recently completed painting and willed herself to remember everything, gather every piece of information from her dream, so similar to her painting in some way she could not recall. She at the painting until the sun was setting and she wanted to give up.

And then the knock on her door came.

"Coming!" Chihiro shouted to the person at the door. She took one more fleeting glance at the painting before rushing to the door. When she opened the door, she looked around but found that no one was there. Looking around, she was about to close the door when she saw a shimmering white thing on the ground. She picked it up and inspected it carefully, realising that it was a scale, but too big and too pretty to be a normal fish scale. Carefully etched onto the scale were the characters 'Kohaku'. Could it be the Kohaku River, the one which was drained for the apartment compound but saved by the environmentalists, the one where she almost drowned?

Until now, she could not figure out what had saved her. Was it the spirit of that river? No, it was the twenty-first century. Spirits did not exist. But she decided to check the river out and clear her mind. Perhaps, the river would hold answers she sought.

And she drove down to the river, about half an hour away from he home. By the time she reached, the full moon hung high above, nestled among the twinkling stars in the dark night sky. She saw a figure standing by the river bank, even though the tide was high.

"Hey! Watch out! The river is dangerous!" Chihiro called out, knowing from experience that if the person got swept away by the currents, it was unlikely for him to make it out alive. The man turned around and Chihiro gasped. His eyes... they haunted her every night. How could she not recognise them?

_ "The river will not harm anyone. After all, it saved you that time when you were drowning, am I right?"_ How did he know? It was impossible. She didn't know the man. Or did she?

_ "Come, Chihiro. I have been waiting for you for nine years." _Waiting for her? But he was a stranger. Nine years ago. That marked the start of her dream of those eyes, the eyes the man in front of her possessed.

Without warning, the man touched her forehead and memories came rushing back to her. It explained everything, the leaves that had gathered on the car when she and her parents got out of the tunnel, the light sheen of dust covering the boxes the movers arranged in their house, the questions from her friends and relatives about why they had not called for a week.

"H... Haku?" Chihiro raised her hand to touch his face tentatively. His skin was still as pale, his hair still the same style as nine years ago. Only his height and his eyes changed. His eyes had a deep maturity, as if he had seen things he should not have seen. Regret was evident. Guilt. And another underlying emotion. Deeper than anything, present since the dawn of time. Love. Was that what he felt for her? If it was, she was a lucky girl. She loved him as much as he to her, perhaps even more. The feeling never actually went away, it was present, always, in the deepest recesses of her mind, waiting to be uncovered.

_ "Chihiro, are you ready to go back to where you belong, with me?"_ Filled to the brim with emotions she had no control over, tears welled in her eyes as she nodded. Haku smiled at her as he gently wiped her tears away. In a blink of an eye, he turned into a dragon and nuzzled Chihiro, as if saying 'hop on'. Chihiro felt a tug, a resistance from her human body, but as she followed her heart, she entered the spirit world once more; this time, intending to stay.

Later that night, a homeless old man found the body of a young woman. Her heart had stopped for no apparent reason, but she did not look like she had been in pain. In fact, she was smiling at the midnight sky, looking as if she were at peace. Her arms were hugging herself, resembling a lover's embrace.

If they looked closely, perhaps they would have seen two stars, side by side, shining brighter than the others.

* * *

Ah, the power of true love.


End file.
